The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-07-22

love, and whose courts are paved with
love, and whose throne is set on
pillars Of love, and whose scepter
is adorned with jewels of love and
whose palace is lighted with love, and
whose lifetime is an eternity of love.
When Paul was leaving so much on this
side the pillar Of martyrdom to gain so
much on the other side, do you wonder at
the cheerful valedictorv Of the text:
The time OF my departure is at hand.
Now, why can not all the old people Of
this congregation have the same holy
glee as that aged man had! Charles /,
when he was eombing his head, found
gray hair, and ne sent it to the Queen as a
great joke; but old age IS really no joke
at all. For the last forty years you have
been dreading that which ought to have
been an exhilaratlon. You say you most
fear the struggle at the moment the soul
and body part But millions have endured
that moment and why not we as well.
They got through with it, and so can we.
Beside this. all medical men agree in say
ing that there is probably no struggle at
all at the last moment-not so much pain
as the prick of a pin, the seeming signs Of
distress being altogether involuntary.
But you say;
at is the uncertainty Of the future"
Now, child of God, do not play the infidel.
After God has filed the Bible till 1t can
hold no more with stories of the good
things ahead, better not talk about uncer-
tainties. But you say:
81 can not bear to think Of parting from
friends here"
IF you are old you have more friends in
Heaven than here. just take the census.
Take some large sheet Of paper and begin
to record the names of those who have
emigrated to the other shore-the COM
panions of your school days, your early
business associates, tho friend of middle
life, and those who ID ore recently went
away.
Can it be that thog have been gone so
long you do not care any more about
them, and you do not want their society!
Oh, mol There have been days when you
have felt that you could not en-
dure it another moment away from
their blessed companionship. They have
gone. You gay you would not like to
bring them back to this world of trouble,
even if you had the power. 1t would not
do to trust you. God would not give you
resurre ction power. Before tomorrow
morning you would be rafting at the
gates of the cemetery, crying to the de-
parted:
''Come back to the cradle where you
sleptl come back to the hall where you
used TO playi come back to the table
whore you used to sitin and there would
be a great burglary in Heaven. No, mol
God win not trust you with resurrec ton
power, but he compromises the matter
and SAYS:
''You can not bring them where you
are, but you can go where they are"
They are more lovely now than ever.
Were they beautiful here, they are more
beautiful there.
Beside that, it is more healthy there for
you than here, aged man; better climate
there than these hot summers and cold
xviufara and late sDriu cyS hotter bPariu o..
better eye-sight; more tonic in the air;
more perfume in the bloom; more sweet
ness in the song. Do you not feel, aged
man, sometimes, as though you would
like to get your arm and foot freel Do
you not feel as though you would like to
throw away spectacles and canes and
crutches4 Would you not like to feel the
spring and elasticity and mirth of an
eternal boyhoodg When the point at
which you start from this world is old
age, and the point to which you go is
eternal juvenescence, aged man, clap
your hands at the anticipation, and say in
perfe ct rapture of soul:
The time Of my departure is at hand.
/ remark, again, all these ought to feel
this joy of the text who have a holy
curiosity to know what is beyond this
earthly terminus. And who has not any
curiosity about itl Paul, suppose had
the most satisfactory view Of Heaven, and
he says:
sit doth not yet appear what we shall
! be-"
It is like looking through broken
| telescope: ''Now we see through a glass
darkly."
Can you tell me any thing about that
/ heavenly p1ace9 You ask me a thousand
| questions about it that / can not answer
ask you a thousand questions about it
that you can not answer. And DO you
wonder that Paul was so glad when
| martyrdom gave him chance to go over
| aud make discoveries in that bles sed
/ cOuntryl
I hope some day. by the grace of God,
to go over aud see for myself, but not
now. No well man, no prospered man, I
| think, wants TO go now. But the time
/ will come, ] think, when ] shall go over
| l want to see what they do there, and ]
/ want to see how they do it. I do not
want to be looking through the gates ajar
| forever. / want them 20 swing wide
open. There are ten thousand things
want Xplained-abOut you, about my
| self, about the government of this world,
about God, about every thing We start
in plain path of what we know, and in a
minute come up against a high wall of
| what we do not know. / wonder how it
looks over there. Somebody tells me it is
| like a paved city--paved with gold, and
another man tells me it is like a fount-
ain and il is like a tree and il
is like a triumphal procession, and the
| next man I meet tells me it is all fig
urative. really want to know, after the
body is resurrected, what they wear and
| what they eat; and have an immeasur-
| able curiosity to know what it is and how
it is and where it is.
Columbus risked his life TO find this
1 continent and shall we shudder 20 go
out on a voyage of discovery which shall
/ reveal a vaster and more brilliant coun-
| tryg John franklin risked hls life to find a
passage between icebsrgs, aud shall we
/ dread to find passage to eternal sum
merl Men in Switzerland travel up the
| heights of the Matterhorn with al
/ stock, and guides, and rockets, and
ropes, and, getting half way up,
/ stumble and fall down in hos
rible massacre. They just want to
/ say they had been on the tops Of
| those high peaks. And shall we fear to
i go out for the ascent of the eternal hills
| which start a thousand miles beyond
| where stop the highest peaks of the Alps,
/ aud when in that ascent there is nj perill
A man doomed Ia die stepped on the
| scaffold and said in joy:
"Now, in ten minutes ] will know the
| great secret"
One minute after the vital functions
| ceased the little child that died last night
\ in Montague street knew more than iona.
1 than Edwards, or ST. Paul himself, before
\ he died.
| Friends, the exit from the world, or
/ death if you please 20 call it, to the Chris
/ tian is glorious explanation. Ii is dem
| onstraton. 1t is illumination. 1t is sun
burst 1t is the opening of all the win
/ dows. 1t is shutting up the cate
l chism Of doubt, aud the uurolling of all
the scrolls Of positive and accurate in
/ formation. Instead of standing az the foot
/ Of the ladder aud looking up, it IS stand
| ing at the top of the ladder and looking 9